Curious, about how long did it take you to do something like this with all the shades/etc?

I wasn't keeping track but at least several hours. It'll commonly take 6 hours to do a not-too-complicated image. For me a lot of that time is used up experimenting though; for good or bad I spend a lot of time trying out different techniques instead of refining what I've tried before. That most recent tutorial is still how I'm doing the basic setup, though. It's a lot easier than what I used to do way back when I started.

I googled the rectangular pupils that goats and octopus have because I was so curious about them. Apparently it allows the creature to absorb more light in the dark and see in a wider spectrum, like a wide angle lens. It's really creepy, but it works great on these guys.

Thanks Gobol! Yeah - I can give it some color under all that, and it'd probly look nice, but I gotta go to work & I wanted to have something to show off I'll see if I have the gumption to come back to it. Heh! You know, I hadn't realised till I went to color it that Isma was actually glowing.

Cool, though your work would probably really benefit from painting in the core shadows and varying between hard and soft shadow edges. Right now your shadows are sort of in between. Isidro's arm in particular would really benefit from a hard shadow with a core shadow running along the place that is farthest away from the light source. It's also good to keep in mind that colors get warmer right next to an area of shadow. That can help your colorings look a lot more lifelike. Probably not applicable to the underwater scene but for other colorings it helps.

Cool, though your work would probably really benefit from painting in the core shadows and varying between hard and soft shadow edges. Right now your shadows are sort of in between.

That's true. It's hard to make myself do it just cause I'm not used to it. Thanks for the advice!Added some color to the last one. Now it's Isma's hair that's looking underloved. I'll see what I can do about that, next.

Wow, that scene looks incredible in color! I love the way you colored the night sky, clouds, moon, and moonlight reflecting off of the god. It looks so natural. It looks exactly like a real full moon night. Great job!

Very eerie looking. The original detail lines compliment the colors a lot. Though, the lines you added on the tentacles look a little bit rough. Maybe if they were blended in a bit or used a thinner brush?